West’s Palestinian statehood push derailed efforts to release tax funds to PA, Huckabee says

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee says growing international momentum to recognize a Palestinian state directly led to the collapse of US efforts to persuade Israel to release funds to the Palestinian Authority.

Huckabee says he had been “shuttling back and forth” between the two sides, partly out of concern that worsening economic instability in the West Bank could spark violence, but that momentum toward recognition has hardened Israeli positions.

“I felt like we were making progress. We weren’t quite there yet, but we were talking, and there was progress, and there was understanding of the importance of getting it resolved,” Huckabee tells Reuters in Jerusalem.

According to the PA, Israel is withholding around $3 billion in revenues. Under a longstanding arrangement, Israel collects customs and import taxes on behalf of the PA, which make up a large part of its budget.

Jerusalem has been withholding the money due to the PA’s practice of paying monthly salaries to Palestinian prisoners and families of dead attackers, including terrorists. Ramallah has pledged to reform the payment system.

Huckabee says that the amount being withheld is significant and that it is inflicting extraordinary economic pain on Palestinians. However, he insists that the Palestinian Authority bears some responsibility for encouraging recognition efforts.

He says the wave of recognition announcements also prompted more declarations by Israeli officials calling for sovereignty over parts of the West Bank.

Huckabee says he is not aware of any US-Israel communication over the issue, and adds that Washington’s position on settlement expansion is that “Israel has to do what Israel has to do.”